Allan D. Kirk received his MD and PhD in Immunology from Duke University, where he also completed his surgery residency. He completed an multiorgan transplant fellowship at the University of Wisconsin, during which time he began his longstanding work on costimulation blockade and personalized immune management. He advanced this work as Chief of Transplant Research for the Armed Services Transplant Service in Washington, DC, and subsequently as Chief of the intramural organ transplant program at the National Institutes of Health. In 2007, he moved to Emory University, as Vice Chair for Surgical Research, and in 2014, was appointed Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Duke University. He holds Professorships in Surgery, Pediatrics and Immunology and serves as Surgeon-in-Chief for the Duke University Health System. In addition to his clinical transplant practice, he has published over 300 scientific manuscripts, and continues NIH-, DoD- and FDA-sponsored investigations in organ transplantation and immune management. He has focused increasingly on the curation and analysis of multidimensional data for use in Real World Evidence trial design, clinical decision support tool development and drug discovery. He has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Transplantation since 2010, is a member of the AST and ASTS, and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.

About John S. Najarian, MD 

This lecture series honors the work of former Department of Surgery Chair Dr. John Najarian (1967-1993).  In 2007, the John S. Najarian Surgical Chair in Clinical Transplantation was established in his honor.  Under his leadership, major research, clinical and educational contributions to the field of surgery led to the development of one of the world's largest transplant programs.   Recognized with a multitude of national and international awards, Najarian’s crowning honor is the 2004 Medawar Prize, widely deemed the world’s most prestigious award for outstanding achievement in organ transplantation.  He became a Medawar laureate for his monumental contributions to immunobiology, experimental transplantation and clinical transplantation.